Posted on 11/16/2001 1:24:12 PM PST by callisto
A videotape that could show exactly what happened to American Airlines Flight 587, which crashed three minutes after taking off from New York's JFK airport on Monday, is in the hands of the FBI -- but the bureau has thus far declined to release it.
New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman Tom Kelly confirmed to the Daily News Friday that the agency has given surveillance videotapes from Cross Bay Blvd. and Marine Parkway bridges to the FBI.
"One tape captures the plane taking off from JFK," the News said.
Cross Bay Blvd. and Marine Parkway traverse Jamaica Bay, where the plane's vertical stabilizer was discovered intact after the crash.
Dozens of eyewitnesses have told media outlets they saw an explosion and/or a fire at the juncture of Flt. 587's wing and fusilage moments before it began to break up, losing its tail first, then both its engines.
Catastrophic engine failure, which was first suspected to have caused the explosion, was ruled out Tuesday after NTSB investigators examined the engines and found no evidence of mechanical failure.
Since discovering the engines were working properly, NTSB spokeswoman Marion Blakely -- along with most media outlets -- have quietly dropped references to witness accounts of a midair explosion.
The NTSB now says that wind turbulence from another plane is the most likely cause of the crash. One former jumbo jet veteran pilot was highly skeptical of the turbulence theory.
"If wind turbulence caused that accident, I'll never fly again," Barry Schiff, who flew 747's for TWA, told the New York Post.
But a videotape showing the exact sequence of Flt. 587's break-up could clear up any mystery, showing whether or not the break-up was caused by an explosion or by turbulence.
It's not clear why the FBI has not yet released the MTA video -- or even commented on what it shows. It's also not clear why the Flt. 587 video was not turned over to the NTSB instead of the FBI, which had reportedly adopted a secondary role in the wake of NTSB claims that the crash was an accident.
When an Air France Concorde jetliner crashed after catching fire on takeoff from a rural French airport last year, an amatuer video of the accident was released within 48 hours.
Calls to the FBI's New York office and to MTA spokesman Kelly were not returned by presstime.
The only entity with a real reason for a coverup is the Port Authority, which runs JFK. Either the plane was sabotaged by airport workers, or the airport controllers let Flight 587 take off too soon after the JAL 747 (less than two minutes after a 747 is way less than the 3-4 minutes recommended.) I am still leaning toward the latter. A pilot with no experience flying through the wake of a 747 may have panicked and made many mistakes that jerked the plane violently to either side, causing the tail and then the engines to snap off. It seems to me impossible that the plane could have been sabotaged at JFK in broad daylight with so many ground crew running around. The plane flew in from Boston early Monday morning and had no problems, so any sabotage would have to have taken place at JFK. However, I am still troubled by the eyewitness accounts that do not seem to jibe with the wake theory.
And the Federal building tapes, the FBI files, Foster, Brown, Military sales to China, Hubble, .......We all know the goverment officials always tell the truth, and witnesses are lying about seeing the Airbus plane on fire.
If they say the plane fell because of air, then the plane fell from air.
LOL!
People with programmable keyboards may want to put the "[saracasm]" and "[/saracasm]" tags on function keys as macroes. From the way Free Republic has been acting lately, everyone will get a lot of use out of them.
Not during the election, not during any of the Klinton years, not EVER have I see so many people 1) burying their heads in the sand; and 2) popping up just long enough to make fun of people who try to look at the world with their eyes open and their mind switched to "on."
These are strange times in America, and they're even stranger times here at FR.
Hey, people, wake up -- we're supposed to be the smart ones, remember? We can _think_ for ourselves and we RESPECT other people who think for themselves, we don't make fun of them. The sheeple are those other people...
Mark W.
As far as the CDR not showing sounds of an explosion, would all types of bombs in various sections of the plane be audible? Enquiring minds want to know.
What if two swallows had a warhead on a string between them?
Of course they'd have to be African swallows. The European variety can't carry such a payload.
But then again, African swallows are non-migratory.
Hmmmmm?
And to tie all this collusion between the govt and the airlines in with the quick passage of yeaterday's airline security -- I heard
Mrs. Daschle is a lobbiest for American Airlines!
Yes, that is a conflict of interest.
I know I'm still waiting. But I'm not sure it really matters what happened in this case. Apparently no one on FR will believe the final report, choosing instead to assign baseless motives.
Was it a rookie pilot?
What FACT, non rumor or opinion or witchcraft or trying to be lounder than the next man would lead anyone to beleive it was an act of terrorism, TO THE EXCLUSION OF ALL OTHER THEORIES.
The real problem here at FR is not anything more than an incredible level of uncritical thinking. People who blame the government as uncaring and unthinking demonstrate they have no ability to conduct a critical debate themselves.
Once FR occasionally reported on Whackos, Now this place has become a place where every anti-government whacko screams through their internet megaphone. Each tries to out do the other. People are either taking pride in circulating childish rumors, or they don't know these are nothing but senseless rumors and preconceptions, which is worse.
During the Clinton times, there were a lot of smart people here. Most have gone because of the preponderance of illogical, uncritical thought. Where once Michael RIvero was a laughed at, now resides a cadre of people who think he was too calm in his beleifs!Remember, being conservative doesn't mean you have to mouth stupid ant-government slogans.
Wake up. Grow up. Think!
I learned to not hold my breath nine years ago when the president and Congress promised to declassify the POW information. Watch their lips to see if they're lying.
Today, 11-16-01 Excerpts from Boston Globe
The carbon-fiber tail fin on the plane that crashed, known as the vertical stabilizer, snapped off just above six carbon loops that are used to attach the fin to the fuselage. The loops fit into metal sockets on the fuselage, and the connnection is secured with six titanium metal bolts.
The carbon fiber around one of the six loops on the tail fin was repaired during the plane's manufacturing in 1988, the NTSB said this week.
Investigators said the metal fittings and bolts held through the crash, but the vertical stabilizer snapped off on a line that runs across the carbon loops.
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